Good movie but grossly overrated

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

I like movies that push character's psychological limits, and the initial premise of this movie fit that.But there was so much to dislike with this movie, for me; - way too dark in many scenes and I'm thinking, okay, what am I seeing, and being clueless - frustrating! - not one character was likable, so I was never really pulling for any of them - hard plot to follow, too many characters, too many plot lines to keep track of - ending was horrible - bad guy just says 'I made it all up', what? Would have been just a tad better if the dentist hadn't shot himself in the last scene, it would have been interesting to try and imagine what happens afterward I stuck with the movie all the way through, and still unclear on a lot of stuff.

First and foremost the audience must believe indie-movie WASPs can be so retarded as to make themselves kidnapping victims. The initial threat of the fat "Saw" mastermind is to kill the manipulated hero's wife while the couple trap themselves in their own home per fat mastermind's instructions. The main characters readily gift-wrap themselves for an obese "Saw." One wants to yell, "Dude if some fat guy is threatening to kill your wife from outside your home and she is with you keeps her with you and call the cops".The "story" was hard to swallow. The subplot of the movie is about lies hurting third parties or marital betrayal or revenge. No one knows because the puzzle meant to be solved has no more than 45 pieces. Only the mastermind knows who, what, when or WTF. The plot involves lies about sexual preference, infertility, infidelity, prostitution thrown in a pot of HIV and Hep B. The clues are served on screen as annoying snippets by bad actors.One must note someone in involved in post- production is a PowerPoint enthusiast. The title and credits fonts were horrible. What no links or flying marquee? Honestly the entire movie was a mish-mash of bad lettering and editing. What is bearable? The montages--they were music video propaganda which promoted some local band's music to the hilt. The music montages were the only coherent imagery throughout the movie. Furthermore, the movie is unfinished the audience never finds out the motive of the home arrest and multiple murders of visiting characters. The mastermind basically surmises he was just f@#$g with whatever the main character's name is-- because the victim was stupid enough to trap himself in his own house and fall asleep while the obese "Saw" took the wife to the adjoining garage. The husband suffers from starvation and dehydration when he finally gets a chance to speak to the mastermind face to face. The two both look horrible. The wife is being hung up in a noose by obese "Saw" and you notice she makes no movement. Only one of the characters has been eating--obviously for three. The mastermind gets away via bad editing.The wife dies from having her hand amputated and/or being hung from the garage rafter so the husband kills himself. It is reasonable to conclude she gnawed her own hand off to escape this production. If your spouse is be forced into watching this movie-- Run away! Run away from this movie. If someone threatens your love one run away in a zigzag pattern or lock yourself in your house and call the Police.

This "psychological" thriller (because this is certainly not a horror movie) has a couple boarding up their own house (why do they do that?) to be submitted to a strange puzzle game. They are somewhat forced by an unknown man. If you think this sounds dumb, wait until you see the movie (but please don't). The story is very unbelievable because normal people don't do that and escape (which is easy). During annoying flashbacks their past is revealed."99 pieces" is a very low budget rip-off from the original "Saw", and the result is just awful. Everything is wrong here: the production values, the cast, the total lack of excitement, tension or gore, you name it. The main "actor" is also the producer, composer and director of this p--ce of crap. So that explains a lot. I only watched the first boring half hour and than fastforwarded it. Trust me: you won't watch it longer..

The premise of this movie is that the husband and wife characters are trapped and forced to solve a puzzle to save their own lives. The problems with this movie are: Bad script, even worse actors, and a very nasty looking production. It tries really hard to copy the Saw movies but the result is like taking NightQuil. The villain has a fake Jigsaw voice but doesn't offer any real gore or fright. Basically this movie is psychological torture of the audience if anyone managed to stay awake. The ending felt like the writer struggled to end a story without plot--It piled on more nonsensical story line to justify the awful experience the audience just endured.